About Northern Diver

We would like nothing more than to be able to source high quality rubber in the UK, but unfortunately this option no longer exists. Years of experience have shown us that to manufacture our drysuits from the best materials, we need to source neoprene, all thoroughly tested with any flaws found and removed prior to production, plus being available in sufficient quantities and, very importantly, when required.

The solution is to work in partnership with the manufacturers ensuring we have the best materials available. The has enabled us to manufacture our drysuits without the worry of material failure during the life of the suits. This means we can offer a lifetime warranty on the materials. Peace of mind for us and peace of mind for our customers.

We don’t just think about the suit’s materials, we think about every component of the suit even down to the glue and stitching, sourcing the best quality and most suitable materials in each case.

For many years boots were always the weak spot of any drysuit from any manufacturer so Northern Diver spent considerable time and effort developing boot materials and construction techniques. The result is that all our drysuits are fitted with hand-made, individually vulcanised boots, using our own lasts.

Testing

Northern Diver test all materials and components before they are even incorporated into a design for a drysuit. This includes extremes of heat, washing and abrasion testing. All materials are tested to destruction to ensure that failure rates are well beyond anything they would encounter when in use in a drysuit. When the drysuits are manufactured, we send them off for the hardest real-world testing that we can find. This means that the suits are tested by professional divers, often in dirty and gruelling environments, by technical divers going to extreme depths, by extreme divers such as cave explorers and military divers. Only when the reports from our testers has been absorbed by our team and any adjustments made and retested does the production team receive the go-ahead from the development team.

In recent times, drysuit valves have been supplied to most drysuit manufacturers from only one or two sources. However, we’ve discovered the hard way that the best way to ensure valves are of the highest standard and quality is to design and manufacture them ourselves. Therefore we looked for, and eventually partnered with, a UK/European design team at SCL with Hong Kong/Canadian engineers, and now have inflation and exhaust valves fitted to our drysuits which out-perform all other drysuit valves by 30%.

Manufacturing/Production

Once the materials have been sourced, new designs or design updates have been finalized, and quality control procedures adapted, the production department begins making suits. All aspects, from stitching to screen printing and badge application is scrutinized as production begins. Once the suits come out of the finishing department, they are taken to the testing area where they undergo seam integrity tests, valve tests, other pressure tests and finally a visual inspection. Once dried in a gentle dehumidification room, the suits are carefully packed into their boxes, extras such as hose, manual and maintenance kit added and taken to the shipping department where they depart to Northern Diver distributors in all corners of the globe.

Once the drysuits leave our distributors they are sold in local shops and retail websites. However, our job doesn’t stop there - we welcome all feedback from end users and look to adapt to suggestions where possible. One example of this is after feedback was received from customers, happy with their made to measure drysuit but wanting an off the peg version for their next Northern Diver drysuit - we looked at our size options and adapted our entire sizing system to incorporate over 20 male size options and 15 female options.

During the last 30 years Northern Diver has manufactured more than a quarter of a million drysuits. We learned a lot about body dimensions during this time and this enabled us to create an online system which would calculate the most likely size of suit required for any particular diver, using just an accurate height and weight measurement. Remarkably, this system has proved invaluable to divers who want to size themselves or just use a ready-reckoner to give themselves some idea of which size suit they require.

We are only interested in ensuring we have happy customers. If you experience any problems owing to local conditions, no matter where in the world you are, we really want to know about it and solve it.

Click here to contact us.